


Seas Rise

by SaxSpieler



Series: Verǫld Vǫrðr [26]
Category: Runescape
Genre: Body Horror, Dark, Eldritch, Gen, Nightmares, Xau-Tak creepiness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-20
Updated: 2017-05-20
Packaged: 2018-11-02 18:25:31
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 853
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10950201
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SaxSpieler/pseuds/SaxSpieler
Summary: Nations Fall





	Seas Rise

**Author's Note:**

> Nightmare prompt from ZorialDiamond - needed to get my writing chops back in gear for some in-progress projects that I want to get done, so I spruced up some Xau-Tak nightmare-type creepiness. Body horror ahoy.

Stale, rotten air.

Damp earth that smells of dead fish and salt.

An inky sea, at once boiling, freezing, melting, and boiling again.

Muted, echoey, yet familiar sounds. The squawking of seagulls. The rustle of maple and pine branches in the wind. 

This stretch of coastline - I’ve seen it before.

Aye, everything is _almost_ right. _Almost_ real.

Then, I see it.

A castle, silhouetted against the dim, sickly light of the… _sky?_

Miscellania Castle.

No, that’s not quite right.

Obsidian planed smooth replaces the rough stone blocks. Normally squat towers stretch and tessellate skyward, groaning, grinding, and shifting ever so slightly like a desert mirage. The walls don’t quite touch the dead and cracked ground, sloughing off into entropy before meeting the earth.

It _is_ Miscellania Castle, just _not._

I look up, and vertigo hits me like a smith’s hammer as I try to parse through the warped perspective of what used to be my home, stumbling under the sight of the pillars stretching and distorting above me. They meet at a single point in the… _sky_ …that seems to devour every bit of light in this already shadowed place.

I focus on that point, and for a moment, I can see the barest glimpse of…

 

_…teeth._

 

They grind against each other, gnashing and tearing at something that’s either non-existent or incomprehensible.

I hear them.

The grinding gives way to words. Four words.

_Seas rise, nations fall._

The voice is different every time.

Adrius.

Wahisietel.

Athrhan.

Ma.

Da.

Geilir.

Akthanakos.

Marin.

Sliske.

Their voices are familiar, but lifeless, droning, and undercut with a sound I can only describe as that of flesh being torn from bone.

Sullivan.

Zanik.

V.

Kharshai.

Moia.

A woman’s voice I don’t recognize.

Another strange voice, a man’s this time.

_Seas rise, nations fall._

Something brushes against my shoulder, and I whirl around to face…

…nothing but trees.

Aye. Right. Jumpy twit.

I’m alone here, my only companions are the chanting voices and the sound of my heart pounding in my ears.

_Seas rise, nations fall._

Something begins to press down on my chest, and each breath gets harder to draw in.

The air chills and thickens, and I cough out a stream of bubbles.

_Seas rise, nations fall._

Salt stings my eyes.

I can’t breathe anymore.

_Seas rise, nations fall._

 

I’m drowning…

 

THEN SWIM, YE DUMB BASTARD!

Frantic, I claw at the gummy, inky water, but something snags my shoulder.

A hand. Stony and as cold as ice.

BACK OFF!

I tear it away, but it comes back and clamps down on my throat.

Then another.

Five. Ten. A dozen more.

All of them as black as the obsidian walls.

_Seas rise, nations fall._

Slowly, they pull me upwards, dragging me by my arms, legs, hair, whatever they can grab onto.

They pull me towards the abyss lined with those grinding, lathing teeth.

No!

NO!

I scream, but all that comes out is bubbles.

I struggle, but the hands hold too tightly, claws tearing through my armor.

_Seas rise, nations fall._

The abyss is closer.

I can see…

 

…it.

 

_Seas rise, nations fall._

 

It reaches out, tendrils and claws paling and breaking off into human-shaped fragments.

_Corpses._

Corpses, gasping and screaming, their hands twitching and clenching as they approach.

Gods, no.

I try again to get away, but…

 

I don’t…

 

…want to anymore.

 

The first corpse, his rotting scalp flecked with tangled strands of copper hair, reaches me, embraces me like he always used to. His touch burns.

The second, eyes blazing an unnatural blue, drives a fist into my sternum, and something deep in my chest screams and splinters.

Then another, her gaping stomach wound leaking something putrid and oily, claws at my arms with four-inch talons, screaming endless accusations.

The fourth is little more than strips of torn flesh molded into something only resembling a human. Its eyes are kind, motherly, as she peels the skin from my face with tender, acid-filled kisses.

Another, its body that of something halfway between a daggermouth and something I remember admiring as a hero, seizes the sides of my head and stares into my eyes, and I feel the veins in my body crumbling. My heart stills, turned to granite.

Others swarm me. I recognize each face. Each scowl. Each pleading stare. Each gape of pain.

I could’ve helped them. Saved them.

Should’ve been stronger.

Then, I could have prevented this whole fecht.

They say as much. All of them.

_They’re right, you know. This is all your fault, dear Finley._

The final corpse, hands clasping my shoulders and drawing me against torn silk and stony skin, whispers in my ear with my stolen voice.

I’m being torn apart.

 

Bit by bit.

 

And I’m letting it happen.

 

_Seas rise, nations fall._

 

The teeth loom.

The corpses push me closer to them.

What’s left of me - what little there is - hangs silent in the thick water, awaiting annihilation.

My mouth, against its will, moves, and a voice that might be my own shatters the silence.

 

“Seas rise, nations fall.”

 

The glorious, gaping maw of eternity surrounds me.

 

 

And I shatter.


End file.
